Thursday, November 29, 2012

New Stadium Plans for Downtown Tampa...for Soccer?

Seemingly out of nowhere, a group of English investors announced plans for a new $400 million stadium for an expansion MLS team in Tampa...and the league appears interested.  The concept has huge implications not just to the region's existing soccer leader, the Rowdies, but to the Rays' campaign for a new baseball stadium as well.

The roughly 25,000-seat facility, possibly with a retractable-roof, would be located "as close to downtown as we can possibly get," John Mitchell told the Tampa Tribune

Hillsborough county commission chair Ken Hagen, one of the biggest proponents for a new Rays stadium, revealed tepid interest in the story, saying "We're open to it, if it makes sense."  Hagen is obviously in an akward place, with few public dollars available in Hillsborough County and now, a new presumed suitor for public subsidies.

As for building the stadium without public funds, you can probably forget it.  If a privately-funded Rays stadium in the middle of the region doesn't make sense to developers, you can bet a soccer stadium near the Brandon area will make even less.

A new MLS team could hurt the Rays in other ways too: Tampa Bay doesn't seem to have enough available personal income to support three major professional teams; adding a fourth slice of pie only stands to hurt attendance numbers of the Rays, Bucs, and Bolts.

Mitchell's group tells the Trib it plans to reveal more details on Dec. 11, aiming for a stadium opening in March 2016.

5 comments:

  1. While I agree the likeliehood of a $400 million venue is unlikely considering it would cost about $100 M more that the most expensive SSS proposed. There are a couple things you get pretty much dead wrong here:

    "As for building the stadium without public funds, you can probably forget it. If a privately-funded Rays stadium in the middle of the region doesn't make sense to developers, you can bet a soccer stadium near the Brandon area will make even less."

    Almost all of the MLS's stadiums have been majority privately financed and would require signifcantly less help from the government or taxpayers -- if at all.

    and

    "A new MLS team could hurt the Rays in other ways too: Tampa Bay doesn't seem to have enough available personal income to support three major professional teams; adding a fourth slice of pie only stands to hurt attendance numbers of the Rays, Bucs, and Bolts."

    Oh jesus -- just throw this out there with no evidence. This has not happened in a single city where MLS has expanded to and this is just fear mongering.

    You do good work sometimes but you should learn more about the MLS, SSS, and other issues before you run off and make claims about it's affect on the Rays at all.

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  2. I appreciate your feedback, but there is no fear-mongering.

    You argue some MLS stadiums have been built without public funds, but I don't know of any that came with a $400M pricetag in a city as small as Tampa. Without a lucrative television contract that leverages outlying areas of Tampa Bay, it will be hard for the team to draw revenues from outside of Hillsborough County.

    And it's been well-documented the region lacks major corporations willing to plunk down money on pro sports; another factor that would make a New York-style MLS stadium deal unlikely here.

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  3. Oh, and another $100M for an expansion fee.

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  4. Why would they bring back a soccer franchise after the Mutiny?

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  5. I highly doubt that they will end up paying $400 million for a stadium. A top class 20k stadium is a little over $200 million. The retractable roof is ridiculous. And yes, it could be privately funded. A European company would not really understand or consider public funding.

    $100 million is the expansion fee for New York. Montreal was $40 million in 2010. The fee will be going up though. Probably $50 million.

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